As election workers continued to pore over write-in ballots in Alaska’s Senate race, it remained unclear Friday whether Sen. Lisa Murkowski had enough uncontested votes to keep her seat without a court battle.
Ms. Murkowski ran a write-in campaign after losing to Joe Miller, a tea-party favorite, in the Republican primary in August. Write-in ballots have totaled 40.2% of the vote, compared with 35.3% for Mr. Miller and 23.4% for Democrat Scott McAdams.
In the rainy state capital of Juneau, election workers and observers from each campaign gathered for the third day of combing through the write-in ballots to determine who received each write-in vote.
The Division of Elections counted in Ms. Murkowski’s favor most misspellings of the candidate’s name, as long as the voter’s intent was deemed to be clear. Ballots weren’t counted in Ms. Murkowski’s favor when her name was written but the oval next to it wasn’t filled, as required by balloting rules. Observers were allowed to contest any decisions they disagreed with.
Votes for “Lisa Murcouski,” “Lisa Murkawski” and “Lisa Murkoisk” drew challenges from Ivy Frye, who watched the process on Mr. Miller’s behalf. She also challenged ballots on which voters correctly spelled Ms. Murkowski’s name but then elaborated on it—in one case by drawing a stick-woman, and in another by adding the label “Independent.” (Despite losing the GOP primary, Ms. Murkowski says she remains a Republican.)
Joe Geldhof, Ms. Murkowski’s observer, contested some ballots that were discarded because the oval wasn’t filled next to Ms. Murkowski’s name.
As of Thursday evening, 89.8% of write-in ballots were counted for Ms. Murkowski and uncontested by either camp. An additional 8% were counted for her and contested by Mr. Miller’s camp—in most cases, because Ms. Murkowski’s name was misspelled. Meanwhile, 1.5% weren’t counted for Ms. Murkowski and were contested by her camp—usually in cases in which the oval by her name wasn’t colored. Fewer than 1% of write-in ballots appeared to be for candidates other than Ms. Murkowski.
The tabulation process continues this weekend, election officials said.
Depending on the outcome and margin of victory, candidates could ask a court to weigh in on whether votes were improperly added to Ms. Murkowski’s total or were improperly discarded. In addition to write-ins, a number of absentee ballots remain to be counted.
On Friday, Mr. Miller sued the state in an Alaska court to get access to election registers, to count and inspect signatures “to ensure there was no possible fraud, mistake, irregularity or inconsistency” that could impact the election.